Monday Night Inferno!

I was sitting at the computer waiting for 24 to come on. While I was sitting there I smelled what I thought was someone burning a campfire. I decided to get up and check it out since its not something you smell very often. I followed my nose to the garage and didn’t see anything. I decided to open the garage just to see what I could see…..

The house across the street from me, and I mean directly across the street from me, was engulfed in thick black smoke that was blowing right at my house. I yelled for my wife and she grabbed her phone and started to call 911. It has been pretty dry here recently and I knew that I had to be ready for anything now. I got my hose hooked up in the front of the house as fast as I could and waited.

It didn’t take long for the hot embers to start coming my way. The wind that had been howling all day was still in full effect and blowing right at my house. The fire seemed to start on the opposite end of the house in the garage, but it quickly made its way toward us.

The fire trucks showed up and got set-up. Thankfully one truck laid hoses out in my yard and his only job was to hose down mine and my neighbors houses. I was most relieved when he started to do that.

At one point when I was watching this all unfold I remember looking at the roof of the house that was burning and seeing huge jets of flame shoot out where vents used to be. That was a sight to behold.

From the talk amongst the neighbors we pieced together the following. The lady(who wasn’t home when it happened) used to own a pet store and had a lot of animals there. She bred shar-peis (SP?), had pot-bellied pigs, lizards, snakes(venomous), rats, and monkeys. I know that the dogs, except for one who was hit on the main road made it out, I think all the pigs made it, monkeys survived, and at least one iguana. Needless to say I had NO idea all that stuff was in the house.

I have never experienced anything like this before. Looking at the sky and seeing it covered with red embers floating by was quite surreal. No person was hurt, but I’m not sure about the animals. I’m just thankful that my house was spared through the ordeal.